🧪 Kubernetes Homelab with GitOps

This repository documents the evolving infrastructure of my self-hosted Kubernetes homelab, built as part of my DevOps upskilling journey with Kubecraft. The lab is designed to simulate production-grade workflows using GitOps principles, lightweight tooling, and secure configuration practices.

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🚀 Project Goals

• Build a reproducible, scalable homelab using k3s
• Manage deployments declaratively with FluxCD
• Secure secrets using SOPS
• Explore real-world service deployment (e.g., Linkding, Grafana)
• Practice infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD workflows
• Document and share progress for public learning

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🧱 Current Architecture

• Cluster: Single-node k3s running on GMKtec Mini PC (Debian)
• GitOps: FluxCD v2.7.1 syncing manifests from this repo
• Secrets: Encrypted with SOPS and decrypted via Flux integration
• Networking: Cloudflare Tunnel for secure external access
• Storage: Persistent volumes configured for Linkding
• Monitoring: Added kube-prometheus-stack for observability (includes Prometheus, Grafana, and Alertmanager).
• Editor: LazyVim (local) and Vim (server) for workflow efficiency

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📦 Key Deployments

1. Linkding:

• Self-hosted bookmark manager deployed via Helm
• Secrets securely managed by SOPS
• Exposed via Cloudflare Tunnel for secure external access

2. Grafana:

• Integrated as part of the kube-prometheus-stack
• Configured with TLS encryption for secure access
• Ingress added for external routing

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📁 Repo Structure

homelab-gitops/
├── apps
│   ├── base
│   │   └── linkding
│   │       ├── deployment.yaml        # Linkding deployment spec
│   │       ├── kustomization.yaml     # Base kustomization for linkding
│   │       ├── namespace.yaml         # Namespace definition
│   │       ├── service.yaml           # Service exposure config
│   │       └── storage.yaml           # Persistent volume claim
│   └── staging
│       └── linkding
│           ├── cloudflare-secret.yaml # Encrypted Cloudflare secret
│           ├── cloudflare.yaml        # Cloudflare Tunnel config
│           ├── kustomization.yaml     # Staging-specific overrides
│           └── linkding-container-env-secret.yaml # Encrypted app secrets
├── clusters
│   └── staging
│       ├── apps.yaml                  # Flux source and kustomization
│       ├── flux-system
│       │   ├── gotk-components.yaml   # Flux core components
│       │   ├── gotk-sync.yaml         # Git sync configuration
│       │   └── kustomization.yaml     # Flux-system kustomization
│       └── monitoring.yaml            # Monitoring stack integration
└── monitoring
    ├── configs
    │   ├── kustomization.yaml         # Kustomization for configs
    │   └── staging
    │       ├── grafana-tls-secret.yaml # Encrypted TLS secret for Grafana
    │       └── kustomization.yaml     # Kustomization for staging configs
    └── controllers
        ├── base
        │   └── kube-prometheus-stack
        │       ├── kustomization.yaml # Kustomization file
        │       ├── namespace.yaml     # Namespace definition
        │       ├── release.yaml       # Helm release configuration
        │       └── repository.yaml    # Helm repository definition
        └── staging
            ├── kube-prometheus-stack
            │   └── kustomization.yaml # Staging-specific configs
            └── kustomization.yaml     # Kustomization for all staging controllers
           └── kustomization.yaml     # Flux-system kustomization

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🧠 Learning in Progress

This repo reflects an active learning journey. Expect iterative improvements, refactoring, and documentation updates as I scale the homelab to multi-node architecture and automate provisioning.

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🤝 Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Mischa van den Burg for championing the homelab-first approach to DevOps education. This project is inspired by Kubecraft’s belief that hands-on infrastructure builds confidence and clarity.

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